# How to use Google Gemini: the app, Gems and skills, Gmail and Docs > To use Gemini, go to [gemini.google.com](https://gemini.google.com), sign in with a Google Account, type a prompt in the box at the bottom and click Submit. Save instructions you repeat as a Gem, or as a skill on a personal account, where Gems turn into skills this November. In Gmail and Google Docs, click Ask Gemini at the top right. Mindket editors · Published 2026-11-05 · Updated 2026-11-05 · https://mindket.com/learn/ai-assistants/gemini-tutorial ## In short - Turn the setup you paste into every chat into something you call by name. - On a personal account, start anything new in the format that outlives this year. - Draft and tidy an email without leaving your inbox. - Get Gemini's words into the document itself before you close the tab. ## Before you start You need a Google Account: a personal one, a school one, or a work account on a qualifying Workspace edition, where you must be 18 or over. Use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera or Edge. Gemini inside Gmail and Docs needs an eligible Google Workspace or Google AI plan. A personal account can try some of it through Google Workspace Experiments, a trusted tester program. Two words matter here. A **Gem** is a saved set of instructions, with optional files, that shapes Gemini's answers for one kind of job. A **skill** does the same job and is replacing the Gem. Menu names follow Google's help pages as they read on 5 November 2026. ## Your first Gemini chat Pick a small job from today. The prompt below is ours: it hands Gemini a pasted list and asks for a plan you can act on before lunch. ````text Here are the tasks on my list for this week. Sort them into "must do", "should do" and "can wait", and give each a one-line reason. Then suggest which two I should start on Monday morning. [paste your list here] ```` 1. **Go to** [gemini.google.com](https://gemini.google.com) **and sign in.** 2. **Type or paste your prompt in the text box at the bottom.** To add a file or an image, click Add files. 3. **Click Submit.** Gemini picks a model for the prompt by itself. Once signed in, you can choose one from the menu instead. 4. **Reply to reshape the answer.** Ask for shorter reasons or a plan laid out from Monday to Friday, and the same list comes back in a new form. ## Save a prompt you repeat: Gems and skills Pasting the same setup at the top of every chat is the sign you need one. To make a Gem on a computer, open the sidebar at [gemini.google.com](https://gemini.google.com) and click Gems. The first time, go through Settings and help, then Gems. Click New Gem and enter a name and instructions. Under Knowledge, click Add files to attach files from your device, from Google Drive or a whole NotebookLM notebook. Drive files need Keep Activity on and Workspace connected. Test it first: enter a prompt on the right and click Submit. Then click Save. Personal accounts are moving off Gems. [Google's transition page](https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/18560919?hl=en) says Google recreates each Gem as a skill automatically, on the dates below. To move one by hand, copy its name, description and instructions into a new skill. Skills live in the sidebar under Customize, then Skills, and Customize may hide under More. To build one by hand, click Create, then Create manually, paste the name, description and instructions, and click Create. In a chat, type / and the skill's name to call it, a key Google is changing to @. Gemini can also pick a skill on its own when a prompt fits, and one chat can use several. A skill is stored as a folder with a SKILL.md file in it. That is the format [Agent Skills](https://mindket.com/blog/what-are-agent-skills) use in Claude and other assistants too, so the idea carries across apps. **When Gems become skills** 1. **November 17, 2026** Personal accounts. For users 18 and over, Gems turn read-only and move to skills. 2. **December 17, 2026** Gems removed. Download any Gem knowledge file you need before this day. 3. **March 2027** Work accounts. Workspace business, enterprise and non-profit accounts follow. 4. **June 2027** School accounts. Workspace education accounts move last of the dated groups. Source: [Google: About the transition from Gems to skills](https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/18560919?hl=en) (read 2026-11-05) ## Gemini in Gmail and Docs In Gmail on a computer, Ask Gemini sits at the top right. Click it, and a panel opens on the right. Write your request at the bottom of that panel and send it with Submit. It can turn a long thread into bullet points or draft a new email. It can also polish your own draft, find a detail such as a flight time and book a meeting from your Google Calendar availability. Nothing in your inbox changes until you confirm. Even then, you get 60 seconds to undo the action. A request that matches more than 10,000 threads is not processed, so narrow it by sender or date. The [email lesson](https://mindket.com/learn/ai-for-work/write-emails-with-ai) covers the prompt behind a usable draft and the checks to run before sending. Google Docs has the same button in its top right corner, and it opens a side panel with suggested prompts. Click Sources in the bottom bar to point it at other files. Then insert what it writes. To rework a passage, click Refine on the floating bar. Match writing style, Enhance and Rephrase come first, with Shorten, Elaborate, More formal and More casual under More. Accept all keeps the changes and Reject all drops them. ## What Google posted when NotebookLM became Gemini Notebook On 16 July 2026, Google's main account [posted on X](https://x.com/Google/status/2077812135556497471) that NotebookLM was now Gemini Notebook. The post called it the same standalone product under a new name, and said it would do more across Google, inside the Gemini app and Google Search included. That move matters for this lesson. A Gem's Knowledge field already takes a whole notebook, so a research notebook can stand behind a Gem you use every week. Both names point to the same notebook, so a help page that still says NotebookLM means Gemini Notebook. Build the notebook first, with the sources the job depends on, as [the NotebookLM tutorial](https://mindket.com/learn/ai-assistants/notebooklm-tutorial) shows. Then attach it under Knowledge when you make the Gem. On a personal account, open the skill Google makes from that Gem and check what came across. > Gemini Notebook remains the same standalone product you know and love, just under a new name. > > Google, the company's main account, [X](https://x.com/Google/status/2077812135556497471) (read 2026-11-05) [![Google (@Google) on X, 16 July 2026: NotebookLM is now @Gemini_Notebook. Gemini Notebook remains the same standalone product you know and love, just under a new name. It remains your premier research tool, but it will now do more across the Google ecosystem, including in the @GeminiApp and Google Search as Gemini Notebook.](https://mindket.com/blog/shots/x-google-gemini-notebook-rename.webp?v=ad16f7993368)](https://x.com/Google/status/2077812135556497471) Google on X, 16 July 2026 > A screenshot of X's own embed of the post, taken on 5 November 2026, with the time in UTC. X cuts the post short with Show more. Select it to open the post on X. ## Common mistakes - Building a new Gem on a personal account this month. It turns read-only within weeks. Make a skill. - Asking Gmail's Gemini about something on the web without saying "Use Google Search". Web answers need that phrase in the prompt. - Closing a Doc while Gemini's draft is still in the side panel. Refreshing, closing the document or going offline wipes that history. - Taking a thread summary's figure as fact. Google says suggestions may be inaccurate, so open the email the number came from. ## Try it yourself - Run the weekly task prompt with your own list, then ask for one change to it. - Make a Gem or a skill for one email you write every week, and use it twice. - In Gmail, ask Gemini to summarize your longest thread, then read its last three emails yourself and compare. - In a Google Doc, Refine one paragraph with More formal, and use Reject all if you prefer your original. ## Next course: Write with AI Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude can all draft text for you, and readers have learned to spot text a model wrote alone. [How to draft with AI](https://mindket.com/learn/ai-writing/draft-with-ai) opens the course on writing from your own notes, editing without losing your voice and what AI detectors can and cannot tell. ## Check yourself 1. You use a personal Google account and want to save instructions you use every week. What should you build this month? A. A skill, from Customize and then Skills B. A new Gem C. A pinned chat Answer: A. Gems on personal accounts turn read-only on 17 November 2026 and move to skills, so a skill is the format that lasts. 2. In Gmail on a computer, where do you start a request to Gemini? A. The Compose button B. Settings, then Labels C. Ask Gemini at the top right D. The search bar Answer: C. Ask Gemini at the top right opens the panel where you type the request and click Submit. 3. You want Gmail's Gemini to answer from the web. What goes in the prompt? A. "Be accurate" B. "Read my calendar" C. "Open NotebookLM" D. "Use Google Search" Answer: D. Gmail's help page says web answers need a phrase such as "Use Google Search" in the prompt. 4. Gemini wrote a good paragraph in the Docs side panel. What keeps it from being lost? A. Refreshing the page B. Inserting it into the document C. Clicking Reject all Answer: B. The side panel's history goes when you refresh, close the document or go offline, while inserted text stays. ## Frequently asked questions ### What happens to a Gem's files when it becomes a skill? Supported files move with it, up to 100 MB per skill, and the largest go first when a Gem is over. Audio, video, archives such as .zip and old .doc, .xls and .ppt files stay behind, so download them before the Gem is removed. ### Does a Gem I make on the web work on my phone? Yes. A Gem made on the web appears in the Gemini mobile app and in the Workspace side panel. For now it cannot be used with Gemini Live. ### How do I share a Gem? Share the Gem itself, or a chat that used it. A Gem someone shares with you joins your list under My Gems only after you open it and use it. ### Are my Gmail chats with Gemini saved? Not in Gemini Apps Activity. Gmail's help page says conversations with Gemini in Gmail are kept out of it. ### Can Gemini make mistakes? Yes. Google's own help page says so and adds that you should not rely on Gemini for professional advice. Check names, figures and dates against where they came from. ## Sources - [Google: Use Gemini Apps](https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13275745?hl=en) (read 2026-11-05) - [Google: Use Gems in Gemini Apps](https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/15146780?hl=en) (read 2026-11-05) - [Google: About the transition from Gems to skills](https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/18560919?hl=en) (read 2026-11-05) - [Google: Collaborate with Gemini in Gmail](https://support.google.com/mail/answer/14199860?hl=en) (read 2026-11-05) - [Google: Collaborate with Gemini in Google Docs](https://support.google.com/docs/answer/14206696?hl=en) (read 2026-11-05) - [Google (@Google) on X: NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook](https://x.com/Google/status/2077812135556497471) (read 2026-11-05) [Browse automations](https://mindket.com/automations)